Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Our Ally...



Gorgeous and talented Romance author Ally Blake is fast becoming a media favourite.

Australians can check out the double page feature on her in this week's New Idea. It's lovely. Ally's a fabulous ambassador.


Go, Ally!!!

Funny how the headlines always want to gloss over the fact that Ally went to university to study English and they concentrate instead on her cheer leading background. I know many people like to think that anyone can write a Mills and Boon and it's true you don't need a university degree. Some of the company's bestselling writers haven't been to uni. That's not really my point. But, the truth is -- these stories are a lot harder to write than they are to read. Ally is one of the very few authors I know who didn't have to submit for years before her book was accepted. Most of us have suffered many rejections, but we stuck it out because writing these particular books is something we really felt called to do.

You have to love it to go on writing book after book once you've been accepted. Harlequin Mills and Boon aren't interested in publishing just one book. They want an author who can produce, at a minimum a book a year, preferably more.

There are a lot of myths out there about romance writing.

If you'd like to know more about this, check out this perceptive article on Anne Gracie's website.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read Ally's interview this morning. Her cheerleading is always to the fore. I think people believe writing is like teaching: we've all been to school so teaching can't be hard, and we've all written something so a book, especially a M&B (their words, not mine) should be easypeasy. I know it is not!! Anything worth doing is never easy.

Barbara Hannay said...

You're so right, 2paw. I was a teacher for twenty years and I know it's incredibly hard. Now one of my daughters is a teacher and we have long phone conversations about how challenging it can be.
In fact, I think teaching is one of the most important, but overlooked professions.
And everyone has an opinion on how the job should be done -- and is willing to share it, quite vocally at times -- which only makes the job harder.

Ally Blake said...

Awww, thanks for the plug Barb! This is one of my favourite interviews to be sure. The couple who came for a visit were gorgeous and I think they did a really nice job.

And it's true when I was little I wanted to be a teacher who played the flute! And how much more inportant a job can their be than moulding young minds?

Teacher's should be paid like football players and vice versa.